Best Pumpkin Biscuits Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to an excellent biscuit? ›

Do not Overwork Biscuit Dough. Handle the dough as little as possible. Every time you touch, knead and fold, you are developing gluten. The more developed the gluten, the tougher the biscuit.

The butter version rises the highest — look at those flaky layers! The shortening biscuit is slightly shorter and a bit drier, too. Butter contains a bit of water, which helps create steam and gives baked goods a boost.

Buttermilk adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and makes them slightly more tender.

The Bottom Line

I personally think that biscuits are at their best when you use a fine pastry-type flour like White Lily or Bob's Pastry flour. BUT, all-purpose flour is absolutely an option. I actually think that your technique when making biscuits is just as - if not, more - important than the flour you use.

Self-rising flour is great for biscuits for a number of reasons: It's often made with soft (low protein) Southern wheat. Look for White Lily or Martha White flours. I haven't tried King Arthur self-rising flour but their products are usually excellent.

In terms of flakiness, the best fat for making biscuits is probably lard, and vegetable shortening is the next best. In terms of flavor, however, butter is undoubtedly the best, with lard a close second.

Tips to Make Perfect Biscuits

Here are some of my best tips to get flaky, delicious biscuits every single time you bake them: Freeze the Crisco shortening before starting this recipe. The colder your Crisco is, the lighter and flakier your biscuits will be.

The cold chunks of butter are important because as they melt into the biscuit while baking they create tiny pockets of steam that puffs and lifts the dough. These pockets turn into that beautiful light and flaky texture we crave with biscuits.

Rolled Oats (49%), Vegetable Oils (Rapeseed, Sustainable Palm), Sugar, Salt, Flavourings. For allergen information, including cereals containing gluten see ingredients in bold. May also contain Egg, Milk, Soya and Tree Nuts.

Are biscuits better with buttermilk or milk? ›

Buttermilk adds a nice tang to the biscuit flavor and helps them rise better.

But if you chill your pan of biscuits in the fridge before baking, not only will the gluten relax (yielding more tender biscuits), the butter will harden up. And the longer it takes the butter to melt as the biscuits bake, the more chance they have to rise high and maintain their shape. So, chill... and chill.

If you start asking around, any Southern chef, Southern Living Test Kitchen pro, or biscuit-making family member will swear by White Lily flour. Generations of bakers have claimed it as the secret to the perfect, flaky biscuit.

Pillai became known in India as the 'Biscuit King' or 'Biscuit Baron'. He took over Nabisco's other Asian subsidiaries. Pillai then established links with Boussois-Souchon-Neuvesel (BSN), the French food company, and by 1989 controlled six Asian companies worth over US$400 million.

The two keys to success in making the best biscuits are handling the dough as little as possible as well as using very cold solid fat (butter, shortening, or lard) and cold liquid. When the biscuits hit the oven, the cold liquid will start to evaporate creating steam which will help our biscuits get very tall.

Mixing. The multi-stage mixing method is preferred for its ability to produce consistent doughs which are not fully developed. Blending all dry ingredients to rub or cut the shortening into the flour until fat is fully distributed and pea-sized lumps are visible.

Eggs act as a binder for biscuits, without them the mixture will be far too crumbly. They also add flavour and texture, as well as extending shelf life.